High Court appointed panel inspects brick kilns, mining areas in Coimbatore

Madras High Court panel inspects Coimbatore for illegal mining and brick kiln operations, to submit report by October 4.

A panel tasked by the Madras High Court inspected places in Perur and Thondamuthur blocks in Coimbatore district to check alleged illegal excavation of red earth and gravel and operation of brick kilns.

Chairman of the Permanent Lok Adalat (District Judge cadre) G. Narayanan and Secretary, District Legal Service Authority (Sub Judge) K. Ramesh led the panel that was accompanied by District Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati, District Superintendent of Police K. Karthikeyan, District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj and Additional Director of Geology and Mining.

A Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy instructed the panel to visit the mining locations and brick kilns while hearing a writ petition on September 26. The petitioner stated that indiscriminate mining in lands lying close to reserve forests impaired natural movement of elephants.

The Bench tasked the panel to conduct a detailed inspection of all the sites, examine volunteers and villagers found in the vicinity area, record their statement and submit a report of findings before it on October 4.

The judges and officials inspected 19 brick kilns, several brick chambers and places, where red earth and gravel had been mined. The panel measured mining areas during the day-long exercise that started at 7 a.m.

The Alandurai, Perur and Thondamuthur police have registered four cases in connection with illegal mining of red earth this year. The Thondamuthur police registered four cases for illegal operation of brick kilns.